Discussions are ongoing in the Kyiv City Council regarding the appointment of a new secretary following the dismissal of Volodymyr Bondarenko.
This is reported by Kyiv24
The Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has proposed the candidacy of Zoya Yarosha, a deputy from the “Holos” faction, lawyer, and member of the budget committee. Her candidacy is actively being discussed among the city council’s deputy factions.
Criticism and Participation in High-Profile Votes
After the scandalous corruption investigation concerning the previous city council secretary, the new candidate must have an impeccable reputation. However, questions have been raised about Zoya Yarosha due to her political activities in previous years. According to analysts from the CHESNO Movement, Yarosha was among the deputies who voted for a number of decisions known as the “toilet schemes,” which were linked to corrupt land allocations. The media outlet “GRUNT” analyzed 15 such decisions, of which Yarosha supported 14.
Additionally, the deputy has repeatedly been part of temporary commissions investigating the use of budget funds. In particular, in 2023, she participated in the investigation of the causes of flooding at the “Demiivska” metro station. The commission in which Yarosha worked blamed the large-scale accident on “predecessors,” although the official conclusions from the prosecutor’s office and independent experts were of a different nature. In this way, Yarosha effectively justified the negligence of certain officials, ignoring alternative conclusions.
Control Over Budget Expenditures and Investigation of Embezzlement
From September 2023 to October 2024, Zoya Yarosha headed a temporary commission that examined the expenditures of the city budget under martial law. The commission analyzed the activities of all fund managers and provided recommendations regarding their effectiveness. This commission also investigated embezzlement during the renovation of the Kyiv City Clinical Hospital for War Veterans.
“We discovered a completely disproportionate distribution of funds, which raises many questions and is absolutely ineffective. For example, for 2023, the Department of Health received 1.8 billion hryvnias for capital repairs. Of this amount, 540 million is spent on facade repairs at a cost of 10,000 hryvnias per square meter. Another 73 million is allocated for window replacements, while they are replacing plastic windows with other plastic windows,” Zoya Yarosha reported on Radio NV.
As a result, the commission recommended dismissing the head of the Kyiv City State Administration’s Department of Health, Valentina Hynzburg, and holding her accountable. However, Mayor Vitali Klitschko did not heed these recommendations. After that, Yarosha continued to vote for the allocation of new budget funds under the leadership of the same person she had previously considered involved in the embezzlement of over half a billion hryvnias from the capital’s budget.
The question arises whether Zoya Yarosha’s appointment as secretary of the Kyiv City Council will change the council’s approach to the distribution of budget funds and the fight against corruption in the capital.
